INVASION USA

House votes for plan to free Ramos, Compean

Provision would prevent spending any funds to keep agents in prison

Jerome R. Corsi, a Harvard Ph.D., is a WND senior staff writer. He has authored many books, including No. 1 N.Y. Times best-sellers "The Obama Nation" and "Unfit for Command." Corsi's latest book is "Who Really Killed Kennedy?"

The House of Representatives has attached two amendments to spending bills intended to free Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean from prison and prohibit the Department of Transportation from spending any funds on the development of NAFTA Superhighways.

Several congressmen are discussing a third amendment, designed to shut down the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America working groups in the Department of Commerce, but as yet no sponsor has been finalized.

Taken together these memos evidence a growing resistance in the House to open borders, prosecutions of law enforcement on the border, and the increasingly evident drive by the Bush administration to push North American integration.

Ramos and Compean

Representative Ted Poe, R-Texas, sponsored an amendment that was co-sponsored by Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., and Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., aimed at prohibiting the federal government from spending any federal funds to keep Ramos and Compean imprisoned.

The amendment, which passed the House by an overwhelming bipartisan voice vote, is designed to be a “get-out-of-jail now” maneuver forcing the Bureau of Prisons to release the two agents.

“This amendment represents a novel concept,” Poe told WND. “But the House had a lively, emotional, and intense debate on the floor and the more the debate proceeded the more I’m convinced we are winning a lot of people over.”

“Agents Ramos and Compean, serving 11- and 12-year prison sentences for wounding a drug smuggler running more than 750 pounds of marijuana across the border, have now spent more than six months in federal custody,” Hunter said in a press release. “The conviction of these agents represents the most severe injustice I have ever seen and, without question, qualifies for a presidential pardon.”

H.R. 3093 is currently being debated in the House, with a final vote expected to be taken this week.

Hunter’s amendment passed 362 to 63, with strong bipartisan support. And the House later approved H.R. 3074 by 268-153, with the Hunter amendment included.

“The proposed NAFTA Superhighway presents significant challenges to our nation’s security, the safety of vehicle motorists, and will likely drive down wages for American workers,” Hunter said in a press release. “Much like NAFTA, the superhighway is designed to serve the interests of our trading partners and will lead to neither security nor prosperity.”

Referring to the Trans-Texas Corridor planned to be build parallel to Interstate-35, Hunter said, “This 12-lane highway, which is already under construction in Texas, will fast-track thousands of cargo containers across the U.S. without adequate security. These containers will move from Mexico, a country with a record of corruption and involvement in the drug trade, across a border that is already porous and insufficiently protected.”

“Unfortunately, very little is known about the NAFTA Superhighway,” Hunter said. “This amendment will provide Congress the opportunity to exercise oversight of the highway, which remains a subject of question and uncertainty, and ensure that our safety and security will not be compromised in order to promote the business interests of our neighbors.”